I hadn’t been able to locate my husband’s grandfather, Fred Hunter, and his family in the 1940 census. Searching for his parents and siblings individually didn’t help me locate the family. So, I turned to a census “trick” to find this missing family.
PROCESS
I chose one of the more unusual names in the family: Mabel. I chose the 1940 U.S. federal census and searched for the following:
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- First name “Mabel” set to “exact”
- Born in “1912” set to “+/- 2 years”
- Born in “Oklahoma” set to “exact”
- Lived in “Garvin County” set to “exact”
RESULTS
With this search I got 2 results, though neither were the correct family. So, I changed the “lived in” Garvin County from “exact” to “county and adjacent counties” and got 36 results. Near the bottom of the list was an entry for Mable Gunter with the correct parents listed. I had found the family!
1940 U.S. Census, McClain County, Oklahoma, Turnbull, population schedule, page 10A [written], household #163, William E Hunter Household, image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 March 2017), citing National Archives microfilm T627, roll 3308.
You can see it is a fairly poor copy, so it is understandable that it was transcribed incorrectly.
OTHER METHODS
There are several other ways I could have found this family:
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- Searched for some of the family’s 1930 “neighbors.” Since the Hunters were still in the same, small community, it is likely I would have located them.
- Searched page by page through the 40 pages of this Turnbull enumeration.
- Searched using either FamilySearch or MyHeritage, both of which have the family transcribed correctly as Hunter, not Gunter.
- Searched with the wildcard “?” to start the family surname by searching for “?unter.” When there is a transcription error in surnames, it is often with the initial letter.
Do you have other tricks for finding missing families in census records? I’d love to hear! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.
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